This summer, I joined this book study with this group in Chatham, Illinois, via Google Docs. My lifetime friend, Pam Hogan, and her team started this move in Chatham in 2016 and as you will hear from the principal, Elizabeth Gregurich, who is an awesome top down supporter, the paradigm shift is visible on their campus. The district technology lead, Josh Mulvaney, is now involved via the book study, which took it to district level.
Why did this hit home for me? As stated in the previous post, finding everyone’s gifts, talents, passions, skills is what I have been preaching about for years. “Everyone is a Genius” states Elizabeth Gregurich. I believe we all put on this planet for purpose and to delve into what those gifts, skills, talents and passions are will help you find yours! “What is your genius”?
Albert Einstein wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The question I have for you at this point of our journey together is, “What is your genius?”
We know that ALL students can learn. Students learn very differently just as you do. How do we reach all students? Differentiating instruction, meeting all modalities, understanding we all learn best at different times of the day, understanding we all don’t hear everything the first time, understanding that everyone is in a different place with prior knowledge, not everyone understands the academic language, and everyone has very different home situations. These are the many concepts that educators must consider in a day while teaching their topic.
So, I have taken on the task to assist with “peppering” this cultural change onto their already full plate without the feeling of adding more to an already hectic schedule. I’m looking for inspiration from all of you reading this. Hoping someone in each district will look at the powerful positive outcome this creates and take it on for the sake of students and community. Hopefully, this group will develop into assisting each other with ideas that create the interdependence necessary to produce best practices.~Sandy
Enjoy the video below on how this school implemented the “The 7 Habits for Highly Effective People” through “The Leader In Me” as well as other resources.
https://youtu.be/SgkqzMQ91bM
I apologize for the quality but its about getting it said and done, not how perfect it is. ~Sandy
